Monday, February 29, 2016

Hey Jelly Belly!!! Some Flavour Ideas - Middle Eastern Spices

Recently Jelly Belly announced two new crazy/gross flavours of Jelly Beans, rotten fish and rotten milk. I generally support Jelly Belly and their crazy flavours because they're creative and very well done. I also know that Jelly Belly continuously creates new normal flavours as well, although they don't seem to get the same amount of press. I think there's a market that Jelly Belly is missing, and it falls right in the middle of both of their categories. I think Jelly Belly should create flavours that are surprisingly good. Or flavours that you may not have tried, say popular foreign foods.

Rather than simply suggesting that they research this and dump all the work on the research and development team at Jelly Belly, I'm going to help out a bit. I'm going to suggest a few new flavours of Jelly Belly that fit this middle category. Everyday this week I'll post a new collection of flavours based on a theme. From exotic spices to interesting cross candy tie ins.

I'm also going to help design the look of these Jelly Bellies, and give a little info on why these new flavours would work. Normally when I create candies on this site I tell you that my ideas are free for any candy maker to make, and all I ask is that you send me some to try. This list is a little different, this is just for Jelly Belly, and if possible I'd really like to help with their creation. So if you're reading this Jelly Belly, I'd really like to help you out, and I work fairly cheap.

Middle Eastern Spices

For our first day I thought I'd look at something a little exotic. The Middle East has long been a hub of curiosity and exotic flavours.

Middle Eastern cooking is probably most famous for its spices. When you think of Middle Easter spices you think of curries, masalas, and other spice blends. These spicy combinations aren't just for the savory foods though, all over the middle east and southern Asia you'll find desserts that are full of spices, both hot and flavourful. I think this is an area that Jelly Belly could easily latch onto, but with a twist. Rather than make Jelly Bellies that taste like Middle Eastern desserts, why not make jelly beans that taste like the spices often used in these desserts. This would allow the eater to choose a few fruit flavoured Jelly Bellies and make their own Middle Eastern influenced dessert creations.

The first spice that comes to mind for Middle Eastern desserts has to be cardamom. It's a very popular spice used in puddings and baked goods, and would blend very well with many of the fruit flavoured Jelly Bellies. These would also be very tasty on their own, and in some cases might work as a bit of a breath freshener, as cardamom is often used as an after meal treat.

Rose Water Jelly Bellies is a bit more Mediterranean, but I think it still works in this contexts. It's most obvious use would be to simulate different kinds of Turkish Delight. But Turkish delight isn't the only treat that uses rose water it is also a common flavour added to other baked goods in the Mediterranean. In Greece Rose water is often lightly sprayed on cookies to give them a wonderful perfumed flavour.

Fruit Chaat Masala is probably the most specific spice in this line, but I think it would be the most daring. This would be the Jelly Belly that people would dare their friends to eat, and some of their friends might actually enjoy it. This spice combination is specifically designed to work with the sweet flavour of fruit, and I could see this jelly bean becoming very popular.